I Made These Adirondack Chairs Myself

Okay so 9 out of 10 DIY projects at our house are my idea/design and I get to do most of the tedious work, but we give all the credit to my husband because clearly I must not be capable of using power tools of any kind or something and he has the muscle. So not fair.

For this particular project I decided to flip that on it’s head and do all of it myself (minus a couple cuts). Plus I like to get stuff done and let’s face it, Tyler has a job (a demanding one) and he’s not always here at my disposal for these types of things. I really wanted to expand what I could do so that I could do it on more than just the weekends and Corbin already wants me to make him a new bed sometime soon.

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What’s the plan?

So we have this “flower” bed off the back of our house that has never really taken off. I had rosemary that grew beautifully there, but after our crazy Texas freeze, it all died off and I officially gave up on trying to make that bed work. I decided it’s going to be a fire pit area. The problem with deciding it was going to be a fire pit is every chair I wanted for around the fire pit was going to cost me about $300 each and that’s not exactly in the budget.

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You can see the “flower” bed against the house here. The once thriving rosemary is hidden behind Saida’s head.

See! There’s that rosemary to the left.

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So naturally the thing I come around to is let’s just do it ourselves. That’s basically always the end game for everything that doesn’t fit the budget anyway. Why would this be any different? Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?.

I got lost in Pinterest for like a week making sure I’m doing the right thing and what I settled on was a DIY tutorial from DIY Queen Ana White. If you need the tutorial for these chairs, click that link. This post I’m writing is most definitely not a tutorial post and more of a “yes, you can do it because I did it” and “look what we’re up to” post.

My husband helped me with the first chair while he explained some things I’d need to be mindful of, then I took over the next 5 chairs from there. I didn’t do it perfectly and it kind of took me forever (because motherhood and life), but I’m pretty proud of what I managed to accomplish as a first timer.

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Pics or it didn’t happen

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Some takeaways from this project

• Measure twice. I didn’t have that many mistakes, but there were a couple.

• Clamps are your friend. Like your very best friend. (this link is an affiliate link)

• Sawdust in the eye sucks. It’s okay to wear the dorky safety glasses.

• Miter saws really aren’t scary and it’s silly that I was sort of intimidated by them.

• Music makes every project better.

• Say yes to pilot holes.

Stain Info

We used Valspar Solid Exterior Stain and Sealer in Darkest Night to seal and stain (I also used the semi-transparent version of this in a different color on our fence last year). I love it because the color ties in with my outdoor kitchen and porch chairs. I think it’ll look nice with what we chose for the fire pit patio as well. Also I’m usually a Home Depot and Behr kind of girl, but this one had ratings I couldn’t ignore.

What’s next?

Speaking of the fire pit patio, this is the direction we’re going with it once we have a little time to get it done. This one I won’t do by myself. Also it’s currently July in Texas so you really have to pick and choose your outdoor projects wisely this time of year. It’ll either be awhile before we start or a slow process due to heat.

Hopefully come Fall you’ll find us out back making s’mores.

-Monica

DIY Essential Oil Mosquito Repellent

Mosquito season has arrived here in Central Texas and I’m on to my next ditch and switch. I’ve seen plenty of recipes for DIY Essential Oil Mosquito Repellent and I’ve taken what I’ve learned and applied it to my own blend of essential oils (all of which are know for repelling mosquitos).

Watch the video below to learn how to make this homemade, non toxic, and super safe mosquito repellent with me. Instruction are below the video if videos aren’t your thing or if you’re at work and supposed to be working or whatever and a video kinda ruins the secret.

Also for the record I used this after making the video and while everyone was getting mosquito bite after mosquito bite, I didn’t come home with a single one. It totally worked for me.

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What you’ll need

4 ounce Glass Spray Bottle - I got mine on Amazon. You can find a link at the end of this blog post.

2 oz Witch Hazel - I actually used just under 2 oz. I used Thayers but any witch hazel brand will do. Word on the street is you can even sub with vodka so if you’ve got that laying around and you’re open to not drinking it, you can use that too.

2 oz Water - I actually used just under 2 oz.

Essential Oils (5 drops each) - Geranium, Citronella, Eucaluptus, Lavender, Lemongrass

Measuring Cup with ounces listed

Small Funnel - optional

Directions

Mix water, witch hazel, and 5 drops of each essential oil together in your 4 ounce bottle and give it a little shake. Use a funnel to pour if needed. Be sure to shake your bottle before each use.

This is safe to be applied to clothing or skin for the whole family (except very young infants. I always would suggest talking to your doctor about essential oil use when pregnant, breastfeeding or on infants).

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Products from this post

Buy on Amazon

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Feel free to comment and let me know how this works for you or if you have a blend of oils you absolutely love for a bug repellent.

-Monica

Weekend Wrap Up: Lots of Sanding and A Little Bit of Crawfish

This weekend was a weekend of I’m not really sure where the time went or what all got done. I guess technically we did lose an hour, but even still…

I’d hoped to finish up some projects this weekend that just weren’t moving along as expected. Lots of lots of sanding went down and I think the sanding part might finally be done. And let’s be real, kids need things so it’s not like these things ever get my full attention for too long. Here’s a visual of what we’re working on. I’m sanding and staining multiple projects at a time because they’ll all get stained the same color and it seems like the easiest way to control having them all look the same. Sometimes I just eyeball the stain mixture and don’t actually measure so… yeah. The picture ledge will get painted the same white as the shiplap, but the rest of these are getting stained.

I feel like the frames for the mirrors are going to take our bathrooms to a whole new level and I’m really excited about it. Our master bathroom especially is in major need of a transformation and paint and framing the mirrors seem like the biggest bang for our buck. We’ve also got some inexpensive light fixtures from Lowe’s that will be mounted into the header portion of the frame. The top of the frame is a 1x10 and the rest of the frame is going to be made out of 1x4s.

I painted a couple of accent walls black (one in our bathroom and one in the office). I don’t regret it, but admittedly I do regret the sheen. Before we can finish and install the floating shelves, I have to head back to Home Depot for more paint. I went with an eggshell by mistake thinking that was what we used for our outdoor kitchen, but the outdoor kitchen is a satin. I think I may purchase a matte this go around. I did try to sand down the sheen because I saw something on the internet that said I could, but our texture is too heavy for this idea to work so back to painting I go.

Saturday evening we attended a random crawfish boil at our home builder’s house. Two years later he and Tyler still keep in touch even though we were a tough customer. The picture below is all the kids (except Corbin) and their big hearts letting the last two crawfish go. Saida is there on the left cautiously watching the release go down. She was curious, but not interested in getting anywhere near those pinchers.

Fixer Upper Style For My Windows on the Cheap

Ask me who I'd like to be right now and my asnwer is probably Joanna Gaines minus a few kids because let's be real, two is enough for me.  

An episode of Fixer Upper from season 2 is my inspiration for our latest home improvement project.  I always wanted to do this in our old house, but life never really allowed or rather, we didn't make time.  

See that wood header piece above the window?  I wanted something like that on our otherwise boring windows.

We don't have curtains for a couple of reasons.  1. Tyler hates them and 2. his allergies are terrible.  Curtains are just one more thing that collect dust and as cute as they are, we've just opted not to do them mostly (I actually have a pair in the dining room and Saida's room).  But this means my windows were so not cool and so boring and weren't really contributing anything to our home in terms of style or character.  Not to mention our home is a brand new home void of much in the way of character to begin with.  So I decided to do this simpliest version of this idea that I could think of.  

So this was literally as simple as buying wood, cutting it to size, staining it, and screwing it to the wall.  There really isn't anything special about the wood we bought.  I didn't even poly it.  I was really just thinking how do I do this as cheap as possible with as little work as possible and still get something I think looks really cool.  

Next on the list for this room is a rug and maybe a large house plant. 

Side note:  Why are rugs so expensive?  Where do I find an affordable one that doesn't suck? And how do I know how big of one to buy?  I suck at rugs.

OKAY LET'S BREAK DOWN HOW TO DO THIS

STEP ONE: Measure your windows.

In my personal opinion you have two options here.  One is to have a piece of wood for each window and the other is to do like I did here and have a piece of wood for each set of windows.  I measured window sill edge to window sill edge because I wanted a little bit of overhang and that just made sense to me as a simple way to decide on a measurement.

Once I had all my measurements, I took into account how long the boards are at Lowe's and started figuring out how many window treatments I could get per board.

STEP TWO: Family Trip to Lowe's 

Get however many boards you've determined you need.  I'm pretty sure ours are 1x8s, but really you can just get whatever fits the look you're going for.

Wood Stain.  I used a combo of Minwax Weathered Oak and Early American.  1 part Weathered Oak and 3 parts Early American.  I also found a sponge next to the stain that I used to apply the stain once mixed.

Screws - We used black sheetrock screws just because I like to accent with black and it goes with what's happening in our home.  Make sure you buy something that isn't too long, but is going to go through whatever board you choose and still be able to secure to the wall. 

Drop Cloths - Depending on where you plan to do the staining of the wood, I'd definitely invest in a drop cloth or something to protect the floor of wherever the staining is happening.

Sand paper - we used a pretty fine sand paper

STEP THREE: Cut and sand the wood

The cutting part was Tyler's job.  I gave him measurements and told him which pieces were supposed to come out of each board and he went for it.

The sanding is really just so the wood will take the stain and you can remove any sharp edges.  I sanded off all sharp edges of my boards because that's the look I wanted.  I took a wet cloth to my boards afterwards just to remove some of the dust.  Sanding as many boards as I had took forever so I stopped for the day and came back to stain another day.

STEP FOUR: Stain the wood

Again I mixed one part Weathered Oak to three parts Early American and then generously applied the stain with a sponge to one board at a time going with the grain of the wood.  I let it sit for about 7 minutes and wiped it away with the grain of the wood.  I love how the knots in the wood absorbed more stain and really gave the wood some character.

STEP FIVE: Find a really cute young thing to do the install for you.

Just kidding.  But for real though, this could take a couple people depending on how much space you're covering.  We got ours lined up the way we wanted them, made sure they were level, and that we were screwing into a stud.  We also mounted ours down just enough to cover the mechanical part of the blinds.

And that was it.  Now we have Fixer Upper worthy windows instead of ugly builder windows for way less than traditional window treatments would have ever cost.